A Few More Words With Jason Dill

A couple of weeks after our staff photographer Oliver Barton interviewed Jason Dill for our April issue, we decided to follow up on a couple of things. We sent over a few questions to our friends at etnies, Dill took some self portraits, and here’s what he had to say.

Interview by Ashton Maxfield

In your interview you said people always refer back to the early 90s/Trilogy days as the “golden era” of skateboarding and with that comes a lot of respect for the pros who skated during that time. Who, if anybody, in skateboarding will be looked at with that same respect ten years from now? The people I believe that will be remembered, like [how] Mark Gonzales is remembered, like in ways that Guy [Mariano] is—it’s not about remembering who’s style was really good and stuff like that. You are going to remember Dylan Rieder, Alex Olsen, Tony Trujillo, and Rick [Howard] and Mike [Carroll]. That’s our ten years from now. (interview cont’d below)

Do you think that print media will ever die?Yes… I am constantly finding myself feeling as though I’m fighting a battle you can’t win, with technology. I just hope that newspapers don’t die. Hopefully the newspapers don’t die. Everyone looks at this flat screen of imagery, this glowing box of instant whoever wants to voice and do things. It weirds me out, so yeah, I hope that newspapers don’t die.

What will be the final downfall of Western civilization?The part of Western civilization that will be our final downfall is a funny question in itself. Does it mean humanity’s downfall? America’s downfall? I mean, you know the Western way of thinking has already gotten smoking banned in bars in Paris. You know that’s insane! I think that the main thing that the Westernization of the world is doing is—it’s almost like they’re saying it’s the beginning of living and the end of survival. Or in a way, if you look at it, it’s like, no, we really should make sure the government’s keeping us warm and safe at night because I’m afraid of my own kids. But we gotta make sure everything’s healthy and clean and organic or the world’s gonna end. If you keep away from germs and bacteria and all that… well, f—k, it doesn’t matter, everything’s f—ked. The male, the human male, is depleting at a rapid rate right now. As far as male’s sperm count, it’s lower now than since they could count it. You know? It’s like we’re f—ked. Basically, we’re all f—ked and I don’t… I wanna be anywhere where you can do most anything you want without hurting anyone else.

You mentioned the government. Did you vote?No, I didn’t vote.

Do you believe in the Apocalypse?You know what’s funny about belief is that the vested faith in an idea and the suspension of disbelief is really interesting. I think I believe in a human apocalypse. We did this all to it ourselves, we wrote it ourselves. So, we wrote it and we sure know how we’re gonna end it, ourselves.

A philosopher once said “The more you know the more you see.” After being a pro for a minute, do you see more now than you did before?Now that I’ve been pro for a while, if that philosopher said, “the more you know the more you see,” I think it’s because of how much I know the less I look.

If you had one thing that you would want to be known for after your skate career is over, what would it be?I would like to think that I adapted a certain style of skateboarding. That is maybe, less get the trick done and more why are you even doing it.

Do you think that you’ll be remembered for that?I don’t really care how I’m remembered.